It was obvious that Abba, Queen and The Spice Girls should get their own
musicals. Even Coronation Street was easy to satirise for the theatre.

It’s more of a stretch to imagine John Humphrys and James Naughtie immortalised in song – but it happened last week, with the secret West End debut of But First This: Radio 4 – The Musical.

The show, the brainchild of Kathy Clugston, a Radio 4 newsreader had its first outing in front of an invited audience at Leicester Square Theatre last Friday ].

Gwyneth Williams, the Radio 4 controller, as well as Humphrys and Naughtie, have all given their blessing to the show – even though they have not yet seen it.

“It was actually during the Today programme one morning that I talked to John,” said Clugston. “I said, 'I’ve written a musical, you’re a character in it, do you mind?’ And he said, 'I hope you’re going to take the mickey out of me. Although the actor you get to play me probably won’t be young enough or sexy enough’. ”

At Friday’s showcase performance of songs selected from the show, her fellow Radio 4 newsreader Corrie Corfield was roped in to help hand out the playbills.

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The front rows were filled with other familiar names from the station, including Susan Rae, Rory Morrison and Neil Sleat. Another newsreader, Alice Arnold, took to the stage to play fictional newsreader Anna, alongside Michael Fenton Stevens as Humphrys and Jonathan Dryden Taylor as Naughtie.

Arnold, who trained as an actress and originally appeared on Radio 4 as part of the BBC radio drama company, said after the show: “I haven’t done any acting for at least 10 years, and I haven’t done any singing probably for 20, so it was lovely to be singing again.”

The show was co-written by musical director Desmond O’Connor and starts with the much-lamented UK Theme, now missing from the real-life Radio 4, and also features recorded contributions from Peter Donaldson, Eddie Mair and Charlotte Green.

But Radio 4 is taken over by an evil controller Selina Badminton (played by Ria Jones), who proceeds to cut the hourly pips from six to three and turn Woman’s Hour into Human’s Hour. Worst of all, Badminton axes The Shipping Forecast.

“Alice’s announcement of the death of The Shipping Forecast made me cry,” said Samuel West, the actor, who had been invited to the show after discussing The Shipping Forecast on Twitter with Clugston. “I don’t think it was expected to get that reaction – but I think it would, if it ever happened.”

Clare Balding, Arnold’s civil partner, was also in Friday’s audience.

Balding said afterwards that she thought the show was “fabulous” and that Arnold was “properly brilliant”.

“As a radio station, Radio 4 has an incredibly strong, loyal and passionate following, who have never really had the opportunity to see the inside workings of it. This is as close as you’re going to get, because it was written by a Radio 4 announcer,” said Balding. “I do think that people and things that have great confidence have the best sense of humour about themselves, and I think Radio 4 as a network can do that.”

Corfield added: “As an insider on this one, I think it’s very accurate – incredible. The whole scenario with the Today programme is exactly what it’s like.”

In response to Selina Badminton’s horrifying changes to Radio 4, the fictionalised Naughtie and Humphrys organise a Twitter campaign with “important celebrities” to try to save the station.

Michael Fenton Stevens, the actor who played Humphrys, is a Radio 4 stalwart himself, having appeared in many of the station’s dramas including The Archers.

“I don’t think of myself as an impersonator, so I don’t 'do’ John Humphrys – I do a John Humphrys,” said Fenton Stevens. “He has that thing where his voice goes up. And then I just put a bit of a Welsh tinge to it.”

Friday’s audience included theatrical agents and producers, and Clugston is now hoping that the entire show will be produced professionally, possibly for a tour of regional theatres.